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Woodcarving is gaining in popularity among those who want to whittle away their anxieties and carve out time for themselves amid life’s hurly-burly.
Samuel Alexander’s peaceful carving reels on Instagram now have more than 56,000 followers, and his meditative YouTube videos regularly generate more than 60,000 views.
“I began carving after I was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and PTSD but my journey soon became a beautiful discovery of how craft can help people like me to centre themselves,” said Alexander, who became one of Toast’s New Makers of 2022 and holds free workshops at the not-for-profit cooperative London Green Wood for asylum seekers and homeless people.
“Woodcarving provided a place where I could channel my energy and express myself,” said Alexander, who publishes his first book, the Green-Wood Carver: Slow Woodcraft for Beginners, on 10 April.
“I knew that from my first push of the knife into wood that I had found something truly healing,” he added. “When I carve, I am able to look within, slow down and process things.
“Time is locked into the wood you carve, stamped into the grain and growth rings. I like to think of each piece I make as a poem, written in wood.”
JoJo Wood is one of the world’s leading spoon-carvers. She has 26,000 followers on Instagram and has been photographed by the world-renowned photographer Rankin, who is best known for his portraits of Kate Moss, David Bowie and Queen Elizabeth II.
She, too, is passionate about how woodworking can benefit mental wellbeing.
“I have spoken regularly over the years about my own mental health experiences within craft and how I have seen craft help other people,” said Wood, whose father is Robin Wood, the founder of Spoonfest, the annual celebration of wooden spoon-carving (“It’s the Glastonbury of the spoon-carving world,” said his daughter. “Tickets sell out within minutes of going on sale.”)
The earliest known woodcarvings were made more than 12,000 years ago. But carving has become the perceived domain of older, white men. Those at the heart of the new movement, however, are seeking to attract a new breed of followers and carvers.
“I remember going into a feminist rage when I was 18 and helping my dad set up Spoonfest, because I realised the lineup was entirely blokes,” said Wood. “I determined to give women and younger people a platform. We’re finally really getting somewhere: those attending and holding spoon-carving workshops now are a really mixed group.”
The pastime is, nevertheless, still self-selecting in some ways, she said. “A lot of spoon-carving tends to happen in the countryside, so it is still quite white – and it’s also weighted towards those with the time, money and transport to get out into the countryside.”
To try to counter this, Wood co-founded Path Carvers, a social enterprise based in Birmingham that brings traditional crafts and creative arts into urban areas.
The group holds free woodcarving workshops, including one for young people who have been involved in knife crime: as they teach the young people to carve spoons, Dr Katharina Karcher from the University of Birmingham discusses the history and cultural significance of knives.
“We liked the strapline: ‘Solving knife crime with a knife,’ said Sean Vivide, the co-founder of Path Carvers.
Spoon-carving is now so popular that there are workshops in almost every county across the UK. There is a Spoontown weekend camping festival near Canterbury in England – and the Great Scottish Spoon Hooli in Cardross, near Stirling.
“Every time we start a new workshop, it fills up immediately,” said Vivide. “There is a never-ending stream of those wanting to learn: the only thing stopping us opening more is a lack of teachers.”
Sophie Sellu, a woodcarver in south-east London, loves teaching woodcarving.
“When I hold workshops – which are mainly attended, coincidentally, by young women – I love seeing people coming in noisy and fast, and, within minutes, becoming silent, slow and meditative,” she said.
“But while the creation is slow, there’s a joy in the immediacy of making something really beautiful with your own hands that you can use right away, like a spoon or brush.”
Through her business, Grain and Knot, Sellu sells wooden objects for up to £600 made from storm-fallen and reclaimed timber.
“I was drawn to woodcarving by the therapeutic element,” she said. “It’s so quiet and focused: you’re constantly evaluating the natural material you’re working with, so there’s no time to think about anything else.
Maryanne McGinn, now 72, has been woodcarving for 10 years. “I started when I was unhappy, angry and resentful, and searching for a new direction,” she said.
“When you carve, you have to concentrate so hard that everything else disappears: there is no room for you to ruminate on the things that would normally pester you. You get into a flow state. It’s a wonderful sensation.”
